Suzanne's Stamping Garden

  Change can be hard, especially the older we get. But I'm loving the new change with the January - April Mini Catalog. The nicest change at Stampin' Up! is that the dies now are named to match the stamp set it goes with! Prior to this, the dies may have had a similar name but it didn't match 100% as it is now. For instance, I just finished a large project and class using Two Toned Flora stamp set, with the Two Toned Flora matching dies. Because there are no words with that stamp set, I also used the Something Fancy stamp set and matching Something Fancy dies. And the matching DSP (designer series paper) is called Fancy Flora. Another nice change is allowing us to choose between cling or photopolymer stamps with several stamp sets in the January through April Mini Catalog. In the above example on page 18 of the Mini, if you zoom in on the pricing information at the bottom, you will notice that there are two numbers for the stamp set - C for Cling and P for Photopolymer. You...

  If you are like me, you save some of your bigger scraps of paper while making cards. I also save my strips of white and ivory papers in case I need to stamp a saying. There is a business size envelope on my craft desk and as I cut down my papers, I tuck the strips inside. Well! My envelope of strips is now overflowing, so I decided to use them as a background. I was inspired by HGTV - the trend of having shiplap decorative walls...so I have shiplap on my card background! You can glue or tape your strips any direction--let them overlap your base until you are done.  Once you are done, flip the base over so you can see the base and put it in your trimmer to trim the overlap around each of the four edges. In this example, I used the Fancy Flora stamp set (160844) to add some colorful flowers and leaves with a birthday sentiment.  https://www.stampinup.com/products/two-tone-flora-photopolymer-stamp-set?demoid=2187995 Come join me for a Fancy Flora class this weekend! We wi...

 The holiday decorations are put away (almost all of them!) and I needed six thank you cards so I could write out thank you notes for holiday gifts I received. So I pulled out an older technique--using reinkers and acetate. So first, pull out those old overhead projector sheets you have in the depths of your desk drawer! Alternatively, if you do not have any, they can be ordered on my website https://www.stampinup.com/products/window-sheets?demoid=2187995 For space purposes, I cut my sheet in half. To one side of one sheet, add drops of color from your favorite reinker bottles. I like to use an odd number and chose three colors.   Lay the other half of the acetate sheet on top of the sheet you just added ink to. Watch the magic happen! You can drag your finger across the dots to drag the ink into other open areas. Separate your two acetate sheets and then lay your paper on top. I had some white cardstock cut into 4X5 1/4" rectangles. Allow your inked cardstock time to tho...

  Happy New Year my friends! I hope you are enjoying your long weekend, and for those of us in the Midwest, our unseasonably warm temperatures. Masking Technique The pictured card I made recently uses two different masking techniques. The first one is simply taking painter's tape horizontally on my card and then sponging a rainbow of colors in between the two pieces of painter's tape. After removing the painter's tape you can ink a sentiment into the stripe or add decorations using markers. If you'd like to take that a step further, to complete a piece like mine on the left, before you sponge on the rainbow of colors for the background in the stripe, stamp some floral images in the white stripe you created between the painter's tape.  Before putting those stamps away, stamp one of each floral image onto some Stampin' Up! masking paper or you can use sticky/post-it notes, making sure that a portion of the stamped design is on the opposite side of the sticky part....